Minutes later, a retraction followed, stating the message was not sent with the Mayor's approval and didn't represent his views. So how could it have happened?

Well, a member of Mayor Anderson's office staff was promptly (and probably a bit rashly) suspended from his duties while an investigation was carried out.

The Mayor also assured council staff that someone else managed his Twitter account to keep the masses up to date with all the ribbons he's cutting and power breakfasts he's attending.

The mistake itself was quite a simple one to make: the member of staff responsible (who had only recently had their short term contract extended) will have had command of both Mayor Anderson's and his own accounts, and will have erroneously tweeted a message he intended to put out in his own name - even though it may have been an ill-advised one for someone in the employ of our esteemed Mayor.

SOMEONE else who's been in a spot of bother over their Twitter outbursts is former Warrington parliamentary candidate and aide to ex-sports minister Tessa Jowell, Nick Bent.

On May 25, during the Olympic football match in which the South Korean flag was displayed rather than the North Korean one, Mr Bent, in true New Labour style, couldn't help but indulge in distancing himself from all things Red.

Exhibiting the flag of a country with whom the nation has had a fragile ceasefire agreement that has been teetering on a knife edge for nearly 60 years is a bit like playing Z-Cars as our very own Reds run out onto the Anfield turf, but Mr Bent speculated it was no accident, tweeting: "Like to think North Korea flag thing at Olympics was deliberate - plucky Scot thumbing the nose at communist scum in Pyongyang leadership?"

Similarly, during the furore about the invitation to Buckingham Palace of the king of despotic Middle Eastern country Bahrain during the Jubilee, he tweeted: Enjoyed flicking the finger at Ambassador of Bahrain as his car drove up St James Street. Regime of murdering scumbags."

When will these youngsters, with their itchy twitter-fingers, ever learn?

WHAT'S in a name?

Liverpool's politicians sulky as they are at the moment, it's clear Toytown isn't just the name of one of Olympian Zara Phillips' horses.